LG Autonomy: Tinubu, Atiku, Akpabio, others hail S’Court as tension grips 21 governors

At least 21 states in the federation are in a state of fear as a result of the Supreme Court’s decision to halt funding for local government chairmen who were not properly elected.

According to ZINGTIE, the ruling rendered by the supreme court on Thursday ended years of struggle for local government autonomy and granted the third tier of government victory.

In a historic ruling, the Supreme Court upheld the 774 local governments’ right to complete autonomy in order to stop some state governors from egregiously mismanaging their business.

It mandated that money be transferred straight to each council member’s bank account from the federation account that is to their credit.

Similarly, the court prohibited the governors and their privies from accepting, tampering with, or withholding money intended for local governments in any way going forward.

Justice Emmanuel Akomaye Agim offered the main opinion.

Additionally, the governors were prohibited from removing democratically elected persons from their positions in local governments going forward, as doing so would violate the 1999 Constitution.

Local governments are recognised as the third tier of government by the Federal Republic of Nigeria’s Constitution, according to the unanimous ruling of the seven-member panel of justices and Attorney General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Prince Lateef Olasunkanmi, a Senior Advocate of Nigeria SAN.

The Justices concurred with him that, for the previous 20 years, a few state governors in Nigeria had been abusing the Constitution to carry out unlawful actions.

Fagbemi SAN’s claim that the Constitution allowed governors to accept funds on behalf of local governments but forbade them from using those funds for those purposes was upheld.

The top court mandated, among other things, that local governments without democratically elected executives have their monies withheld from the Federation Account.

On May 24 of this year, Fagbemi brought the 36 governors before the Supreme Court on behalf of the Federal Government, citing them for alleged misbehaviour in the management of local governments across the nation.

The Attorney General filed the lawsuit against the governors with the main goal of granting local governments, the nation’s third tier of government, complete autonomy.

The AGF had requested an injunction from the Apex Court in the complaint with the case number SC/CV/343/2024 that forbade State Governors from unilaterally, arbitrarily, or illegally dissolving democratically elected local government leaders for local governments.

The governors, who were sued by their respective State Attorneys General, requested that the lawsuit be dismissed on the grounds that there was no plausible cause of action against them and that the Supreme Court lacked jurisdiction to decide the case.

The Justices, however, denied the dismissal plea, finding it to be without merit, frivolous, and vexatious.

The complaint is based on 27 reasons, including the fact that the President of the Nigeria Federation has pledged to maintain and implement the Constitution’s provisions and that the Nigeria Federation was established by the 1999 Constitution.

In addition to mandating that the monthly allocation be provided directly to the LGs, the Supreme Court made the ruling that allocations should not be given to local government regions that are run by chairmen who are not democratically elected.

Following the ruling, the Federation Account Allocation Committee, or FAAC, would not be able to provide July allocations to a number of local government units located throughout 21 states.

Jigawa, Rivers, Anambra, Kwara, Imo, Zamfara, Benue, Bauchi, Plateau, Abia, Enugu, Katsina, Kano, Sokoto, Yobe, Ondo, Osun, Delta, Akwa-Ibom, and Cross River are among them.

While some states already have set dates for municipal elections, others now have no intention of installing democratically elected chairman.

The governors of the affected states have been shocked by the situation, and Prof. Chukwuma Soludo, the governor of Anambra State, has announced that the Governors Forum will convene an emergency meeting.

Soludo, who is also accused of failing to organise council elections, made his remarks on Thursday at the State House following a meeting with President Bola Tinubu behind closed doors.

But he applauded the court’s ruling, saying that it was a democratic process that all Democrats should support.

“That’s great. I mean, the Supreme Court is Supreme because it is the final authority and am a democrat. I believe in the rule of law. Once the Supreme Court has spoken it has spoken. I understand, I mean, tonight, I think the Governors Forum is meeting to review this.

“We’re yet to even… I mean, I haven’t seen the document myself. I’ve been extremely, very busy all through the day but I’ve seen snippets of it.

“But at a fundamental level, yes, we need resources to get down to the real grassroot and we need the people’s money to work for them at all levels, whether at the federal or the state and the local government.

“We need to promote accountability. We need to promote transparency in the utilization of public resources at all levels, to be able to lift the burden of the common man,” he said.

The results of the governors’ meeting have not yet been made public as of the time this article was filed.

Meanwhile, Nigerians from all walks of life have been responding to the development in different ways.

No more LGs making excuses – Tinubu

The ruling, in President Bola Tinubu’s opinion, has upheld council inhabitants’ statutory rights.

He went on to say that local government chairmen were no longer an obstacle to grassroots good administration.

bu said, “The Renewed Hope Agenda is about the people of this country, at all levels, irrespective of faith, tribe, gender, political affiliation, or any other artificial line they say exists between us. This country belongs to all of us.

“By virtue of this judgement, our people – especially the poor – will be able to hold their local leaders to account for their actions and inactions. What is sent to local government accounts will be known, and services must now be provided without excuses.

“My administration instituted this suit because of our unwavering belief that our people must have relief and today’s judgement will ensure that it will be only those local officials elected by the people that will control the resources of the people.

“This judgement stands as a resounding affirmation that we can use legitimate means of redress to restructure our country and restructure our economy to make Nigeria a better place to live in and a fairer society for all of our people”.

“I commend the Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Mr. Lateef Fagbemi (SAN) for his diligence and patriotic effort on this important assignment.

“My administration remains committed to protecting the principles of the charter governing citizens, institutions of government, arms, and tiers of government in furtherance of building an efficient and performance-driven governance system that works for every Nigerian.”

The majority of the nation’s issues have been resolved, according to the National Union of Local Government Employees, NULGE, which has led the charge in the fight for local government autonomy.

According to Mr. Ambali Olatunji, National President of NULGE, after the ruling, more than 50% of Nigeria’s issues will be resolved.

“We believe that with the local government autonomy judgment, over 50 per cent of Nigerian problems have been fixed.

“Also, we hope there will be financial integrity at the local government levels and all financial transactions will be tracked.

“We will be working with anti-corruption agencies to ensure growth and development.

“So, we are happy and it is a fulfilment of long-awaited dreams and the struggle in the last 15 years has come to a victorious end,” he said.

Local councils were often intimidated by Atiku-states.

Although applauding the ruling, the former vice president and PDP presidential candidate for 2023 stated that some states gained notoriety for stifling local councils.

He wrote on Thursday on his X handle, saying, “I align with the decision of the Supreme Court that the structure of the Nigerian government is portioned in three layers, and of these, the local governments should be centres of development.

“I also share the belief that fiscal autonomy to the local governments should not be limited to revenues from the Federation Accounts, but indeed, should apply to Internally Generated Revenue from the respective local government authorities.

“Many of our states, especially those in the ultra-urban areas with high-density economic activities, have become notorious in muscling local councils from generating revenue on items that border on motor parks, outdoor advertising, rents and many more.

“The verdict of the court is in tandem with the core functions of the Supreme Court as an arbitration court between and among governments.”

Obey the Supreme Court’s ruling Akpabio to governors

Godswill Akpabio, the president of the Senate, has asked the governors to abide by the ruling of the Supreme Court.

Following a meeting with President Bola Tinubu at the Presidential Villa in Abuja, the Senate President told State House media, “Recall that the request was placed before the courts by the AGF because the Federal Government through President Bola Tinubu feels strongly about separation of powers and the need for autonomy of all arms of governments.

“And so for us in the legislature, the Supreme Court has spoken and we have no option than to abide by the Supreme Court ruling.

“So, I will just call on all states of the federation to respect what the Supreme Court has done and then we will go back to the legislature and see where we can dot the i’s and cross the t’s to ensure the full implementation.

“I advise that there should be an impartial election at the local government level so that all the political parties can participate.

“At the moment there’s a lot of lethargy and nonchalant attitude by many political parties whose parties are not in power at the state level, they hardly partake in local government elections because of the perceived bandwagon effect and all that.”

Disobedience to judgement has obvious consequences – AGF, Fagbemi

The Attorney-General of the Federation and Minister of Justice, Lateef Fagbemi, is ecstatic about having brought the governors before the Supreme Court.

He issued a stern warning, citing the Supreme Court’s dire repercussions for any state that disobeys the ruling.

Fagbemi expressed optimism that the ruling will provide the local government regions a fresh start.

“I call it local government emancipation judgement because it has really emancipated the local government from the shackles of the past and I hope that local government officials will look at it as an opportunity to develop their various local governments.

“The ball is in the court of the governors, let us see what they will come out with, but the judgement is clear as to what they should do, the judgement is clear as to what consequences will be attached to failure or refusal to follow the judgement of the Supreme Court, which takes immediate effect.”

Emperor governors violated constitution for 25 years – Ex-VON DG, Okechukwu

According to Voice of Nigeria’s most recent director general, Mr. Osita Okechukwu, the Supreme Court’s ruling will undoubtedly bring back grassroots democracy in Nigeria.

“To me the iconic judgment will, pure and simple, restore grassroot democracy in Nigeria from Emperor-Governors.

“Today the judgment has also restructured our local government system; therefore I call on all to monitor and ensure the prudent management of the 20.6% Federal Revenue Allocation to local government councils.

I commend my Lord Justices of the Supreme and President Tinubu as his perseverance for the autonomy of local government councils has paid off,” he said in a statement made available to ZINGTIE.

Okechukwu regretted that “for 25 years our Emperor-Governors have violently breached Section 7 of our Constitution by brazen rigging of local councils elections and by extension mismanagement of the 20.6% local government funds; hence dampened the development of grassroot democracy.”

He noted that President Bola Tinubu has by this judgment restructured our local government system, just as he saluted the Attorney General, Fagbemi, for the excellent suit “which is a signpost for renewal of our hope in grassroot democracy via the temple of justice system.

“All efforts made in the past 25 years to grant financial autonomy to local government councils via the amendment of the constitution were blocked by Emperor-Governors.”

He called for Nigerians to take action going forward and keep an eye on the 20.6% federal funding given to local government councils for the wise use of funds in the development of our rural communities.

Judgement defective – Ex-governor Ibori

Meanwhile, Chief James Ibori, a former governor of Delta State, expressed what may be considered dissent when he deemed the verdict to be flawed.

He considered the ruling by the Supreme Court to be a violation of the nation’s constitution.

Ibori stated that the ruling might be interpreted as a prohibition on state autonomy in a post on his X account.

“If the ruling is saying governors cannot tamper, touch, or fiddle with the joint accounts, that’s fine because they shouldn’t be doing that in the first place, but asking the federal government to pay local governments allocations to the accounts of the local government directly is utter madness.

“I am opposed to fiddling with the allocations to the Joint LG Accounts at the state level but that in itself does not call for this death knell to the clear provisions of Section 162 of the Constitution. The implications of the ruling are far-reaching and the issues that readily come to mind are:

“The Supreme Court has dealt a severe setback to the principle of federalism as defined by Section 162(3) of the 1999 Constitution (as amended).

“The section expressly provides thus: ‘Any amount standing to the credit of the federation account shall be distributed among the federal and state governments and the local government councils in each state on such terms and in such manner as may be prescribed by the National Assembly’.

“Sections 6 provide further clarity on the subject matter: each state shall maintain a special account to be called ‘State Joint Local Government Account,’ into which shall be paid all allocations to the local government councils of the state from the federation account and from the government of the state.”

“That local government must be ‘democratically elected’ goes without saying. Yes, I agree; that’s the position of the Constitution but withholding their allocation is not the way to go. It’s wrong.

“In the coming days, we will begin to fully understand the implications of the Supreme Court decision.

“An assault on the Constitution is not the answer to fiddling with the Joint LG Account.

“Like the Hon. Justice Oputa of blessed memory once said in describing the Supreme Court, “we are not final because we are infallible, but we are infallible only because we are final”, he said.

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